2023-11-27 18:39:00
One year and four months after coming to power alongside Gustavo Petro, Vice President Francia Márquez seems to be distancing herself from him, judging by some statements she made the week that ended in which she recognized that the country is going through a complex security situation. and that needs efforts to resolve it.
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Even during an interview with a Presidency program, he showed himself as a sharp voice in President Petro’s team. “I have been very insistent within our government and with our military and police forces. On the one hand, we have to advance peace, but also provide security,” he said.
Added to these statements is that for some time now they have not been seen together and, for her part, the vice president has dedicated herself to promoting an agenda that she embodied since the 2022 campaign and that has not had tangible results: women and gender, flags for which the Ministry of Equality was created, of which he is at the head.
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For this reason, this weekend the new national system to prevent gender-based violence was launched in Cali.
Is it shaping up for 2026?
Faced with this panorama – which shows it asking for results in matters of public order and initiating strategies in favor of women – and after the regional elections in which the Historical Pact did not obtain expected results, self-criticism has led some of its members to recognize that they need to rethink the strategy for 2026.
The President, however, is convinced that “if the elections were tomorrow, we would win again,” as he expressed on his X account (formerly Twitter) last Thursday.
His comment arose after the results of a survey contracted by the Administrative Department of the Presidency were published in which he has 51.7% favorability. For the Head of State, those that show a negative image are deceptive, so he took the opportunity to raise the scenario of the elections in 2026, ensuring that for the change he proposes to be “deep, real and irreversible” the Historical Pact will have to win. both in the Presidency and in Congress.
“We are in a position to win the presidential elections, we have to work harder and we must win in 2026,” he said.
But the reality is that at this moment there is no visible figure who could go to the polls and achieve a vote like that of Gustavo Petro, so a candidacy by Francia Márquez shows some promise, although she would have to resign to avoid incurring disqualification. as Germán Vargas Lleras did in 2017.
Regarding this possibility of a candidacy, there is still no official statement, but there is a distance between the president and vice president.
Although they used to frequent the same places and both carried the flag of “total peace” and “Colombia world power of life”, for some time now they have not been seen together and she has focused on the Colombian Pacific, which has opened the door to thinking that they have differences.
Although victory is not certain, there is a chance. The political scientist, master in political studies and deputy director of Pares Colombia, Laura Bonilla, explains that Márquez “in internal consultations he would win, in local elections he can play very well, in national elections it is possible that he will go to Congress, but in presidential elections it would cost him more position and win.”
What can also be expected is that he will arrive with his party “I am Because We Are” strengthened and leading a coalition, especially after the internal rupture that the Pact is experiencing.
The female leadership of the VP
When Gustavo Petro, in March 2022, announced that Márquez would be his running mate on the presidential ticket, she assured that she took on that challenge “on behalf of all the women who have faced war, exclusion, violence and inequality, I assume this commitment with the certainty that we will do this effort with love and enthusiasm, but also with the responsibility that the enormous task of making Colombia a more just country requires.”
Since then, and with more effort in the second round between Petro and Rodolfo Hernández, the figure of Francia Márquez became key, especially to win the female and feminist vote. Ultimately, they won the elections and, in addition to becoming the first left-wing government in Colombia, she was the first black woman to assume the vice presidency.
For Bonilla, she brought great value to the campaign, since “the feminists who did not want to vote for Gustavo Petro, but who identified with the social movements, made a symbolic vote for her. That is why she got an important vote in large capitals like Bogotá and Cali, in addition to the large vote in the Pacific.
The vice president has pointed this out on several occasions. The most recent was her appearance on Entre-Vistas con Alma de País, a Casa de Nariño program, in which she pointed out that current society was formed in a patriarchal structure. “Society has assigned us certain roles and a few years ago women were not in politics. It is still believed that some discussions are only for men, but women have broken that and without their work I would not be Vice President,” she noted.
In this sense, the expert adds that the Vice Presidency has always been a very symbolic position for the women’s movement, but its great focus is on Afro communities and community councils “which are totally underrepresented and marginalized populations in politics,” therefore It formed “an impressive voice of demand.”
During his administration, the Ministry of Equality was created, which seeks to end the gaps that affect women, the LGBTIQ+ population, young people, farmers and ethnic populations.
Márquez’s inauguration as head of that portfolio took place in La Guajira in the middle of this year. At that moment, Petro celebrated what had happened and told those who criticized his reforms that “those who have it, have it so greedily that they steal and plunder the people’s resources and do not even allow them to eat. They are allergic that poor people can receive something from their own country. The Ministry of Equality has to help solve that,” he said, adding that he hopes to see continuity in the project in the next government.
785.215
were the votes that Francia Márquez obtained in the Historical Pact consultation in March 2022.
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